Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Mahabalipuram - The Pride of the Pallavas

The 6th to 9th century AD was supposedly the dark ages in South India,
the Pallavas from Kanchipuram were constantly at war for their survival;
against the Chalukyas of Badami in the West and the Pandyas of Madurai
in the South. In between their wars, they built magnificent temples,
expanded the horizons of art and architecture and experimented with
monolithic and rock cut temples before mastering the Dravidian style of
temple building.
In Badami, the Chalukyas were excavating temples from red sandstone
that is easier to sculpt. Down South in Mahabalipuram, the Pallavas had
only granite hills. Granite is a difficult stone to sculpt and
consequently the temples here do not possess the level of intricacy or
detail that you will find in a sculpture of any sandstone based temple.
The objective of the kings of South India turned to building grander and
loftier temples. After three centuries of war, the Chalukyas finally
overran the Pallavas’ capital in the beginning of the 9th century; but
the granite stones of Mahabalipuram still tell us tales of a lost era of
flourishing art and architecture and their terminal decline.

Shore Temple

In a land like India where civilization stretches to at least a few
thousand years, it’s difficult to unravel fact from fable and history
from mythology. For instance, there are many explanations as to why the
city is named Mahabalipuram (place of great sacrifice). The town was
supposedly named after asura (demon) king Mahabali who ruled these
shores before being vanquished by the Vamana avatar of Lord Vishnu. It
was also called Mamallapuram after the Pallava King Narasimhavarman took
the epithet Maha-malla (great wrestler).The Structural Erections – Shore Temple:
The Shore Temple was built by Narasimha Varman II in early 8th century;
the last substantial work of the Pallavas and one of the oldest
structural (versus rock-cut) stone temples of South India. The temple
was designed to look like a monolith but a major portion of the temple
has actually been reconstructed after the tsunamis and cyclones. A paste
made of shells, honeys, eggs, lemons and sand was used in place of
cement as the binding agent giving the walls a distinct look.

Durga on a lion with small carved shrine

The temple is built right on the shore such that the first rays of the
rising Sun falls on the Shiva lingam located on the eastern side of the
temple. Around a hundred grand Nandis (sacred bull who is the gatekeeper
of Shiva's realm) surround the sanctum of the temple from all sides.
There is a lion statue with a small carved shrine of Durga in the middle
and a water tank beside that which could have been used for ritualistic
sacrifice of animals. The statue bears a striking resemblance to the
national symbol of Singapore!

The Shore Temple, though dedicated to Lord Shiva, has a reclining
Vishnu on the Western side of the temple. You will find a lot of coins
and the odd ten rupee note on this statue; a shameful desecration of a
monument of great historical value. There are also sculptures of
Parvathi (Shiva’s consort), Murugan and Ganesha (Shiva’s children).
The effects of erosion due to years of being submerged in water and
centuries of facing the rough seas and the salty winds are clearly
visible in this temple. Once in awhile, the ASI covers the temple with
paper pulp and casuarinas to protect the sculptures by adding an
additional coating to the surface.

The Shore temple, as per folklore, is the last of the seven pagodas
(temples) of Mahabalipuram. When the 2004 tsunami lashed across the
eastern coast of India, the water initially receded around half a
kilometre before rushing back landward. If you had been standing at the
shore temple at Mahabalipuram at that point in time, apart from staring
at your own death, you would have been one of the fortunate few to see
remnants of the lost temple city. After the tsunami, the ASI
(Archaeological Survey of India) undertook underwater excavations to
confirm the carvings and sculptures. In the aftermath of the tsunami, an
auditorium like structure was discovered just beside the temple and a
huge Shiva lingam was found washed ashore that is now safely ensconced
in a New Delhi museum.

The Govardhana Dhari – Krishna’s Mantap:
Many rock hewn caves and structural temples can be found in a black
hillock at the centre of village. The Govardhana Giri mantapa is a rock
cut monolith that was built by Krishnadevaraja and the elegantly
sculpted scene shows Krishna lifting the Govardhana Mountain to protect
the villagers from heavy rains that lashed Mathura. Various scenes from
the daily life of villagers can also be found in the tableau.

Govardhana Dhari - Krishna's Mantap

Mahishasuramardini cave temple: The sculptures depict the story of goddess Durga killing the dreaded asura Mahishasura.

Mahishasura Mardhini

Varaha Cave temple:
The rock-cut temple of Varaha, one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu, dates
back to the 7th century. There scene shows Varaha holding a Devi after
rescuing her from an asura. Another scene shows Goddess Durga and her
devotees reverently sacrificing their eyes and hands at her feet. Durga
is a hard God to please and gory ritualistic self-sacrifice was
necessary to gain her divine blessings. The dark ages indeed;
unfortunately such masochistic sacrificial practices are still followed
in the present age.

Goddess Durga and her devotees. Notice the devotee on the left sacrificing his eyes.

The Ganesha ratha beside the Varaha temple boasts of an interesting
architecture – a stupa like structure on top, the traditional Dravidian
style in the middle and also arches with Roman architecture. The
pillars for many of the structural temples come in many shapes - simple
square, octagonal shaft type pillars and ornate fluted lion based forms.
This temple is a definitive indicator that the Pallavas were
experimenting with design and architecture of temples.

Ganesha Ratha - dravidian temple with stupa like top

Arjuna’s Penance:
The monolithic Arjuna’s penance is one of the largest open air-rock
sculptures in the world. The tableau is called Arjuna's Penance and
depicts Arjuna, one of the five Pandavas of the epic Mahabharata,
praying to Lord Shiva in the jungle for the powerful pashupathi astra
(weapon) to defeat the evil Kauravas. Arjuna is shown as a gaunt bearded
man standing on one leg with his arms upraised, in a yoga posture. Lord
Shiva stands to the left with the pashupathi astra. Various demigods
are showing watching over the warrior prince with interest. Many animals
like deer, lions and two huge elephants indicate that the penance is
happening in a forest.

Arjuna's penance. - Arjuna is the bearded man in yoga posture. Lord Shiva is to his left

The entire scene is carved on Granite, a hard rock that’s not very
malleable, so using the soft iron tools of the 8th century to create
this masterpiece must have required a lot of skill and patience.
A Tapasya or penance, in the context of Hinduism, is where a devotee
prays seeking a boon or a powerful weapon from his favourite God,
forsaking food and water until he grows a long beard which is later
covered by forest creepers. Once in awhile the Lord of heavens, Indra,
jealous and fearful that the devotee seeks to supplant him, sends one of
his beautiful apsaras (heavenly damsel) to entice the devotee and
disrupt the penance. Hindi movies add a customary raunchy song at this
point! Arjuna, however, manages to please Lord Shiva and obtain the
dreaded weapon to use in the coming war.
The sculptors also throw in a warning about charlatans and false
prophets. A cat is shown meditating with the same pose as Arjuna while a
few mice are praying to the cat. The cat obviously finishes his prayer
and devours the devout mice. How much ever the devoutness, the laws of
nature always takes precedence.

Full panel view of Arjuna's Penance

The deers shown in the panel have found their way into the Indian ten
rupee note. Though the tableau is called Arjuna’s penance, the Hindu
epics have plenty of penances and the scene is also interpreted as the
story of Bhagiratha, a king from the epic Ramayana, who brought the
sacred river Ganges to earth through his devoted tapasya. Whoever it
portrays, the work is a great display of vivacity and joyousness coupled
with austerity and devotion.

Lord Krishna's butter cup.

Rest of the hillock: There are plenty of other monuments on this hillock that are worth visiting.

There are also clues to how an ingenuous solution was adopted to quarry
stones in those times. Blocks of wood were placed into in a row of
pocket sized holes created on the rock. During the course of the day,
the wood expands due to the Sun’s heat and the fissures in the rock open
up a bit more. The Pallavas repeated the process until the rock split
into required dimensions.

Stone quarrying - Wooden blocks were placed in these holes and which expanded due to the Sun's heat.

The Gateway of Mahabalipuram:
This is a series of monolithic temples or rathas (chariots) built in
honours of the Pandavas from Mahabharata. You will find rathas for
Draupadi, Arjuna, Bhima, Dharmaraja and one for Nakula and Sahadeva. The
five temples show many varieties both in ground plan, elevation and
architecture. There are square (Dharmaraja, Arjuna and Draupadi) as well
as rectangular (Bhima ratha) structures that range from single to
triple storeys. These rathas represent the oldest and most well
preserved Vimana models of Tamil Nadu.

An interesting fact about such monolithic temples is that the top
portion is built first instead of being fitted in last. There are also
sculptures of Hariharan (Shiva-Vishnu) and
Ardhanarishwara(Shiva-Parvathi) on the Dharmaraja ratha. You will also
find the sculpture of a huge elephant and lion both of which are a hit
with tourists. It's interesting that the Draupadi’s ratha is placed
beside Arjuna’s ratha. Of her five husbands, Draupadi liked Arjuna best;
so the Pallavas definitely had a good grasp of the Mahabharata.

The streets of Mahabalipuram

In India, even after thousands of years, some things never truly die.
Tradition lives on for generations; art is passed on from father to son
for countless ages. The sculptors of Mahabalipuram still possess the
skills and the passion of their forefathers along with sophisticated
power tools and lathes. They can do in months what their forefathers
took years. Even today the town is an open museum for a student of art
and the roads are dotted with amazing sculptures. The rest of the world
looks up to this historical temple town for granite sculptures, so don’t
be surprised to see masterpieces when walking around the town.
Historians might call the time of the Pallavas the dark ages due to the
multitude of wars, but for Indian art and architecture the period was
just the beginning of a golden era.